Indonesia to chase Google for unpaid taxes: Report

The Indonesian tax office is reportedly looking into the idea of chasing Google for five years of unpaid taxes, Reuters has said.

According to the report, Google's Indonesia operation is believed to have paid less than 0.1 percent of the income and value-added taxes it should have paid, and could owe as much as $418 million for 2015, once fines are included.

Like many subsidiaries across the Asia-Pacific region, Google's Indonesian income is routed through Singapore.

In August last year, documents showed more than AU$30 billion was funnelled from Australia to Singapore by multinational companies to take advantage of Singapore's lower taxation.

The Australian government announced in its last Budget it is set to introduce a Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) from July next year, which will penalise companies that are found to have shifted profits offshore by taxing those profits at a rate of 40 percent.

"These measures will raise an additional AU$3.9 billion in revenue over the next four years," Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said at the time. "Those seeking to do the wrong thing will be left with no doubt that deliberate tax avoidance and evasion will not be tolerated."

"Tax cheats will be tracked down and will face the full force of the law."

Following the introduction of a DPT in the UK, Google agreed to pay the UK government £130 million in back taxes.

In May, Google Australia said it would recognise more of its revenue in Australia.

In the same month, Google's Paris office was raided as part of a tax evasion inquiry.